Happy New Year, everybody! I just wanted to let everyone know that my goal for 2026 is to post drive-in news about as soon as I get it. To make my work easier, I’m going to forgo photos and other graphics unless I really get inspired. I’ll link to the sources; you can usually find pictures there.
I’m also embarassed to say that I’ve got a huge pile of news that piled up last year. I plan to work backwards through the pile, posting the news with the date that I received it. That way, anyone searching for old news about a particular place ought to be able to find it. And here we go…
a typical issue of Boxoffice, accessible through one of Carload’s Yumpu links
Reminder: Carload hosts a list of the Boxoffice magazines that are available through Yumpu.com. I just spent the last couple of days filling a lot of the holes in the collection and extending it a few years. As I type, you can find what’s available for 1948-1968.
As I wrote three years ago about this curated Yumpu list, Boxoffice used to host an amazing archive of its old issues, which were always the gold standard of theater industry news. In parallel, Yumpu also stored a lot of individual issues, but it was and is difficult to find any particular one, let along a chronological string of them. Alas, the Boxoffice vault abruptly disappeared about four years ago, so I went to work preparing this list of what’s available on Yumpu.
I keep figuring new ways to search for issues to fill the holes in the list. My latest: When I can find a copy of a given issue elsewhere, I’ll pick a headline phrase, then search for “yumpu boxoffice (that phrase)” to see whether Google has noticed it. That’s the source of most of the new issues that I added this week.
I’m surprised at the high percentage that’s available. Even counting the odd stretches (all of 1961, for example) where there are no Boxoffice issues on Yumpu, there are probably 75% of them over the 21 years I’ve listed. I compiled the whole thing mainly for myself, because it’s such a great tool for drive-in theater history research, and I’m happy to share it with you. Enjoy!
Bryan TX is hosting a Valentine’s Day weekend drive-in showing of “Top Gun: Maverick” at the soccer lot of the Bryan Regional Athletic Complex on Saturday, Feb. 15. You’ve got to be a grown-up (18+), and you have to bring cash ($10 per vehicle). The City of Bryan web site has more details, including the promise of a family-friendly “Lilo & Stitch” drive-in double feature on May 16.
That’s all good news, though it has stirred my old existential question – what is a drive-in theater? Should this qualify? Bryan has been doing this since at least 2022, apparently always in the same place. The photo from its announcement appears to be an inflatable screen, which isn’t a surprise given the multipurpose uses of its location. It’s running multiple drive-in nights per year, though less often than once a month.
That’s a pretty good argument in favor of including what I’d call the Bryan Drive-In as part of my list of active drive-in theaters. For example, the Blue Starlite in Austin just two hours down the road uses inflatable screens…
(Oh dear. When I went to get a link, I found that the Blue Starlite, which had shown movies as recently as January 2025, is on “extended hiatus from public showings so the creators can focus on their family during a difficult time.” Good luck and hurry back.)
Anyway, if inflatable screens aren’t disqualifying, how often does a location have to show movies to be on the list? The Highway 2 in Manistique MI scheduled only four nights last year. Heck, the Roadium in Torrance CA is mostly a flea market that shows movies once or twice a season to satisfy its zoning or something.
To include as many drive-ins as possible while omitting the once-a-year pop-ups, I’ll try to define it this way: If you’ve got a permanent screen like the Roadium or the Highway 2, any regularly scheduled showings are sufficient to remain an active drive-in theater. If it’s a temporary screen, then maybe four nights a year should be the minimum? I’ll need to consider where to draw the line. What do you think?
